Deputy Minister Of Trade Jerry: The Indonesian Government Targets Non-Oil And Gas Exports To Australia To Achieve 3.37 Billion US Dollars This Year

Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia Jerry Sambuaga said the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) targets non-oil and gas exports to Australia to increase to 3.37 billion US dollars by 2023.

"Our export target is 3.37 billion US dollars, while in 2024 we will calculate, and of course we hope it will increase," said Jerry on the sidelines of the 55th Economic Ministerial Meeting (AEM) in Semarang, Central Java, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, August 23.

The target was slightly increased compared to Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports to Australia in 2022 of US$3.2 billion. According to one data.kemendag.go.id, Indonesia's total non-oil and gas exports to Australia in the first semester of 2023 were recorded at US$1.4 billion. This figure is down compared to the same period in 2022 of US$1.6 billion.

Jerry explained that Indonesia and Australia already have a comprehensive economic partnership (IA-CEPA) agreement. The approval waives entry fees for 7,000 products so that MSME players can optimize the benefits of the agreement.

"I think this can be used by our business actors, our exporters and of course also MSMEs, and I think this is one of our priorities," he said.

Indonesia had a bilateral meeting with Australia on Monday, August 21, where the two countries discussed and increased trade cooperation, including increasing export value.

In a bilateral meeting, Monday (21/8), Jerry and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia Tim Watts discussed the IA-CEPA which increasingly provided benefits for the two countries, including the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) professional engineers, the addition of the Working-Holiday Visa (WHV) quota to enter Australia, the opening of Australian universities in Indonesia.

Jerry also appreciated the addition of the WHV quota which was the result of the IA-CEPA of 30 percent from 4,435 to 5,766 people in the 2022-2023 period.